Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
Canon indicates multiple pasts, at least from BEM's perspective. While I like the idea of a probability field collapsing to a single event, the question remains what causes the collapse? If the past is fixed, and BEM travels into the future, then the intervening period becomes part of his past and is then presumably fixed? And if not, why not? Is the past only fixed by majority?
I am not at all trying to say your idea is not potentially valid, just trying to understand how it would work.
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You are correct in the BEM does perceive multiple pasts, but not infinite. Only the pasts that are created when he travels back to a previous point in a established worldline. The 1989 war is a case in point.
The first time around, it happened and all the subsequent events. Then in say 2016 TET (Third Edition Timeline) he sees the failure of the Project by Krell and decides to try and give the Project more time to prepare. He goes back and stops the computer malfunction and that act, in concert with all the other decisions in the universe, spawns 1989 FET (Fourth Edition Timeline). It is when he goes to 2023 FET, or whatever year it is, and finds his family had died that he become despondent, grieves, finds out what happens, decides not to mettle in the course of events again and wants to find Krell, possibly because of his connection to his families demise.
So BEM only has one past to enter, though he knows there have been different ones. When he goes into the future, he can only chose between ones that are most likely to happen, not go into ones that are highly unlikely, like the universe where all the world leaders simultaneously disintegrate from a statistical improbability of thermodynamics. It is this limitation that makes it impossible for him to go to a future where his family still exists. If he goes back and tries to stop the 1989 in a different way, he is still not assured that it would bring his family back, or that the Project would have more time to prepare or succeed.
This is the way I have structured time travel for my game and, just to mess with BEM, Krell has a slightly different way to messing with the future for his own ends.